Mayor asks boards for written rule banning job discrimination

Mayor Karl Dean says he wants the Convention Center Authority, along with all other boards, commissions and authorities, to adopt polices to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The requests came in the form of letters sent on Tuesday to chairs of the Convention Center Authority, Sports Authority, Metro Development and Housing Agency, Metro Nashville Airport Authority, Metro Nashville Board of Education, Metro Transit Authority, Electric Power Board of Metro and the Hospital Authority.

In each letter, Dean cited a bill pushed by At-large Councilwoman Megan Barry, passed in 2009, that made it unlawful for Metro to discriminate through its employment practices on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Dean signed the ordinance into law after it cleared the council.

Dean asked each chair to adopt a written rule or policy that reflects this particular law.

Dean’s request comes two weeks after Belmont University women’s soccer coach was let go from her job after the school’s administration learned she planned to have a baby with her same-sex partner.

Marty Dickens, who chairs Metro’s Convention Center Authority, also chairs the Belmont University Board of Trustees.

Dickens was roundly criticized for comments he made to theTennessean when he said, “We do adhere to our values as Christ-centered, and we don’t want to make apologies for that.”

In none of the letters did Dean mention Belmont, including the letter addressed to Dickens.

Jon Cooper, Metro Council attorney, said the 2009 bill likely does not apply to members of various boards, commissions and authorities.

28 Comments on this post:

Dean will not stand for any more of that standing by one's principals. The 1st Amendment only works one way and that is his way.

By:Nitzche on 12/14/10 at 6:31

how about Fat people? ugly people? who is standing up for these people? ooohhhh, they are being stood up for in this legislation... long live Diversity!!

By:producer2 on 12/14/10 at 6:56

you are confusing me JeffF. Are you saying that Metro government and it's boards should discriminate?

By:JeffF on 12/14/10 at 8:54

No I am saying it is wrong to force people to accept something that their religious and moral beliefs dictates is wrong and socially unhealthy. This is aimed at getting the local Christians to fall in line and is evil. Someone actually thinks it is good to descriminate against people with strong morals so some unrecognized group will feel comfortable and powerful?

Looks like it is a good thing Nashville is self-marginalizing itself in the state and region. It sure would suck to see this city's leaders actually running something with a future.

By:govskeptic on 12/14/10 at 9:09

Politics and political posturing means everything to a politician.
Politics, wallet, donors, mistress, wife, children, and Faith on
Sunday's only is the new creed of the Elected and want to be's!
We can always count on producer2 to be in the thick of on-line
chatter supporting the Mayor's every move. Any pretense of
not having direct involvement and financial or income interest
otherwise is totally suspect by this reader.

By:producer2 on 12/14/10 at 9:17

You guys are a joke. I didn't endorse anyone or anything. Simply asked a question. But your answers and rhetoric speak volumes. You follow the same thought process that is true of the very politicians you say you loathe. Party line no matter the thought or question. It's why you are nothing more than complainers and will never be doers.

By:Kosh III on 12/15/10 at 8:07

Fat people are free to marry the person they love.
Ugly people can get the Social Security benefits of their spouse.

Frankly, you are free to believe what you wish, you are free to hate whom you want, you can worship how and what your chosen lifestyle dictates. I don't care, but do not compel anyone to conform to your religious OPINION.

The foundation of our civil society is liberty and justice for all. Neither contemporary or antiquated morality nor religious dogma is part of our Constitution.

By:Cold Floridian on 12/15/10 at 8:19

So let me get this straight... The Mayor wants to abolish sexual discrimination. That would mean that Nashville will truly be the city it is aiming to be.. Tolerant, Sophisticated and Awesome.
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

About time we started empowering this city and getting rid of the antiquity of old religion that is tarnishing this great city...
Wonderful News!
And again, God Bless Lisa Howe for bringing Nashville to it's knees to abolish the foolish notion that religion is more powerful than good wholesome Americans...
We are no longer a religious bunch of haters.
We are now a bunch of lovers of all human kind..
God Bless America. God Bless Nashville!

I am so proud of this city for getting rid of the people who are tarnishing this great city. We are no longer a HATE driven religious community. We are now a bunch of civilized Americans learning the word TOLERANCE..
Took a few centuries, but we're getting there. ;)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Think before you post. You could be displaying your ignorance.....

By:global_citizen on 12/15/10 at 8:55

"it is wrong to force people to accept something that their religious and moral beliefs dictates is wrong and socially unhealthy."

The problem, Jeff, is that no one is buying this smoke screen anymore. What Christian like you are calling "religious and moral beliefs" is nothing more than thinly veiled irrational animosity.

You're free to feel whatever disgust and repulsion you feel in your heart. But when that carries over to denying people the right to make a living, the government has a legitimate right to draw the line.

And I applaud government leaders who take a stand for doing what's right.

By:Kosh III on 12/15/10 at 9:03

"socially unhealthy"

Let's get rid of everything that fits that standard. Start by abolishing high heeled shoes. Of course it will put orthopedists and chiropractors out of business but common sense tells us that they are very bad for the body.

Kosh III on 12/15/10 at 7:07
Fat people are free to marry the person they love.
Ugly people can get the Social Security benefits of their spouse.

Kosh, fat people, ugly people, "different" people are discriminated against on a minute-by-minute, hourly, daily basis. They are viewed differently by some people, especially the inshape, pretty ones. I bet Karl Dean would not date an ulgy fat girl.

And you people who are so young and pious are always running me down cause you say I'm old and stupid. So why stand up for gays if you won't stand up for me? After all, being old is not a choice; it's a destiny.

By:budlight on 12/15/10 at 10:10

And calling me names because I have a different opinion? That's discrimination and rudeness.

By:JeffF on 12/15/10 at 12:04

When do we hold a "retain/don't retain" election on all these judges that supposedly are not buying what others believe?

By:iTiSi on 12/15/10 at 12:29

Once again the Mayor pretending to be "Obama" like, just like with his illegal immigration statement yesterday. There's "two peas in a pod" for you! I wonder if the Mayor would agree for Belmont to hire a Pedophile professor? The Center for Addiction and Mental Health now basically says that is their "sexual orientation" based on the fact it is a "wiring problem" or "behavorial glitch" due to not enough gray matter on the brain. Would the Mayor discriminate against them? They cannot be rehabilitated and can't change per the CAMH. Come on, Mr. Mayor, you can't pick and choose!

By:budlight on 12/15/10 at 12:59

And old people can't help it either iTiSi, so he needs to hire me.

By:Kosh III on 12/15/10 at 2:30

Once again there is no valid excuse so the paedophile card gets played.
Maybe some Baptist would like to raise Aristotle from the grave to be a professor of Philosophy?
-------------------------
Ooooo, that's right, my bad. Baptists don't believe in miracles even though Jesus did them routinely. They are selective on what they do or don't accept from the Bible.

By:RTungsten on 12/15/10 at 3:03

"We are no longer a HATE driven religious community."

keep trying to fool yourself.

By:ChristCentered on 12/15/10 at 3:31

It is ashamed in this day and age that we have to make concessions for those committing sin. Where are the laws protecting murderers from discrimination in the work force? They should be there if we are going to protect gay people the same as we protect heterosexual people. I'm not close minded, I simply don't believe you should be granted protection rights for committing a sin.

Homosexuality goes against natural law, and it's God's law. If you go against those laws you have no rights of protection concerning those laws. You should have to stick up for yourself and your own sin.

This country was founded on scripture, our political correctness is swiftly attacking that idiom. It won't be long until everyone regardless of their sins is an equal on every single level. Rapists will be driving your kid's school bus once they get the same laws passed for them as we have for homosexuals.

Like it or not we have to draw lines. My lines are drawn by Christian values and I commend Belmont.

How are your lines drawn? All things come back to Christ, if you forget that tenant then there are no American laws that can help you in the hereafter.

By:Kosh III on 12/15/10 at 4:20

CC

Why are you so silent on adultery and divorce?
Notable sinners in those categories are Rev. Charles Stanley, Ronald Reagan, Betty Ford and half the folks you worship with.

How about incest? Will you come back on here and condemn Abraham and Sarah?

How about Judah? He slept with his daughter in law?

King David committed murder. But no one is naturally born to murder. Sexual orientation is innate. Big difference. Unless you want to do like Christians used to do and persecute left-handed people.

By:Loretta Bridge on 12/15/10 at 4:25

Is the Constitution of the United States of America not good enough. That says equal rights. The only thing Dean and ALL the other elected officials, law enforcement, courts and judges need to do is ENFORCE THE LAWS WE ALREADY HAVE. Now they are going to waste our time and more money to redo what is already been in place since the Constitution was written.

By:budlight on 12/16/10 at 9:40

You said it LOretta.

For God SO LOVED the world . . . .

By:Funditto on 12/16/10 at 9:52

Christ Centered: what about Buddha, Mohammed and Vishnu? They were around long before Christ and I'm certain Belmont has collected tuition from folks that believe in them.

By:global_citizen on 12/16/10 at 11:15

To ChristCentered - This nation is not a theocracy and was not founded on scripture, no matter what David Barton and his ilk would have you believe. You have been so sadly mis-educated.

Nowhere does the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence even mention God.

And it is merely your opinion (based on your religious beliefs) that homosexuality is a sin. Rational thinking people see it for what it is, merely an innate sexual orientation. And most people (at least those who haven't drank the same Kool-Aid as you) would not see murder or rape as the moral equivalents of homosexuality. You're making it hard to take you seriously.

You say homosexuality goes against God's law. God's law at one time also dictated that the sun revolved around a fixed earth. Guess what... God's law was wrong and even the church acknowledges that now (albeit when the proof became too great to deny it).

Oh, and guess what... there is no hereafter because God, Heaven, Hell, and Satan are all just a part of the modern day mythology called Christianity, which will one day take it's rightful place alongside all the other archaic mythologies the world no longer takes literally.

By:GUARDIAN on 12/16/10 at 1:34

GUARDIAN-Nashville could of elected Bob Clement had had a good mayor but OH NO they had to elect an obumanite.

By:oomarty on 12/16/10 at 3:55

A level, fair, playing field is in any sport, only fair as part of the rules. It doesn't prevent you from being a better runner, shooter, catcher or achieving your own personal goals. What it does do is give everyone the opportunity to be in the game based on your abilities.

By:oomarty on 12/16/10 at 3:55

A level, fair, playing field is in any sport, only fair as part of the rules. It doesn't prevent you from being a better runner, shooter, catcher or achieving your own personal goals. What it does do is give everyone the opportunity to be in the game based on your abilities.

By:oomarty on 12/16/10 at 3:57

Oh no We the majority elected the Right Mayor and will Re elect him as well.